On the Farm - Review

Author: Stevie Cameron

Genre: True Crime

Format: Audiobook

Hours Listened: 24 Hours

I was flipping through my library's audiobooks when I discovered On The Farm by Stevie Cameron. This caught my attention because I'd never heard of the case before. Also, coming at twenty-four hours long, I thought this would be a nice book that would last a few weeks at work through opens, inventory, and my short bust ride. I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't right either. This became my, 'anytime I'm not doing anything that needs my full attention' book. Because once you get through the background of Robert Pickton and into what he did, this book had all of my attention.

Seriously, I have never been so caught up with laundry. 

What should have taken me probably about a month to read, took me a week and a half to read. This was one of those cases where when you don't think anything else could go wrong, it does. And, it's not just the twists and turns that keep you guessing, or even an overly intelligent do-er outsmarting cops. It's "decent" people at their absolute worse. So many people let these women down, and so many more people should have had to answer for that.

This case from start to finish broke my heart. I was a teenager when all of this was making the news. Wrapped into my senior year of high school and freshman year of college. So it's no surprise that I don't remember it.

Stevie Cameron doesn't a great job with On The Farm because this isn't a book about Robert Pickton. Yes, the first few chapters are about his life growing up, about his family, and a little about adult life. But there was never a moment when I felt sorry for him, it was glorifying what he did. It was just here is the life of Pickton leading up to the horrid thing he did. What was even better was how this book was about the victims. Their names were said, and as many backstories as possible were told. They were given names and lives, and they were remembered. Cameron treated them like human people, which is more than they got while this case was ongoing.

It's hard to enjoy a book like this. There's nothing to enjoy, but for the size of this book, for the information that was laid out, it was easy to follow along. It was easy to pause and pick back up. After a couple of seconds, my brain caught up with where I left off. Not that there was ever a good stop to pause. I was honestly making myself finish a chapter before pausing for the day. Cameron did a crazy amount of research while writing this book and it shows. It feels like you move through this case from start to finish.

And, if you come into this book knowing nothing about this case, the end will piss you off. The last 45 minutes of this book had me rage-cleaning. This is one of those stories, that moment in history, where we should have done better as people. Where these women deserved better. And, I feel like Stevie Cameron did a great job of telling their story. Of the people, and the system, that failed them.

HAPPY READING!!